Tree structure hierarchies in a database of a processing system are utilized in a variety of environments. There are problems in analyzing these structures particularly as they increase in size. One problem is how to find the areas within a complex tree structure (taxonomy) that hold specific data. An example from the area of record management analyses is this. A client would like to know where all of the records that are placed on hold are located. These on-hold records may be located in a small set of folders. The folders may also provide important contextual organizational information about the contained records. However, that small set of folders may be embedded in a very large hierarchy of folders. Manually searching through the hierarchy for the on-hold records would be cumbersome. Executing a property-based search is another approach. However, that may return more records than is tenable for human consumption. Accordingly, what is desired is a system and method that simplifies the tree structure to allow for human analysis
The present invention addresses such a need.